Radical. Revolutionary. Legendary. These
are adjectives com m only used to evoke
the atmosphere o f Black M ountain College,
the experimental learning community that
from its founding in 1933 drew an electric
mix o f avant-garde artists, architects, writers
and creative thinkers to a remote campus in
the Blue Ridge Mountains. Located near the
hamlet o f Black M ountain, some 18 miles
from Asheville, N orth Carolina, the college
becam e a cauldron o f m ulti-disciplinary
artistic activity during its b rief existence,
fertile ground for Bauhaus ém igrés like
Josef and A nni Albers, Abstract Expression-
ists like Robert M otherwell and W illem de
Kooning, and leaders in the studio pottery
movement such as Karen Karnes and Peter
Voulkos. Buckminster Fuller, John Cage and
M erce Cunningham also figure prominently
in the school’s history, which ended in 1957
when financial instability forced it to close.
T oday a small storefront museum in dow n-
tow n Asheville is carrying on the school’s
remarkable legacy. Named the Black M oun-
tain College Museum + A rts Center, it holds
among its varied resources a collection of
some 350 works created by the school’s stu-
dents and faculty.
Founded in 1993, the museum collects
art created throughout the careers o f
the students and facu lty, but its greatest
treasures are those made at the college,
says A lice Sebrell, the museum’s unassum-
ing program director. C raft objects w ere
made in B auhaus-style “ w orksh ops” that
Josef A lbers established to provide func-
tional items for the self-governing com m u-
n ity and to supplem ent the curriculum .
R ecruited to the college prom ptly after the
N azis closed the Bauhaus in 1933, the A l-
berses made the college “ one o f the m ost
significant inheritors o f Bauhaus philoso-
phy,” Sebrell says.
V isitors to the m useum ’s gallery can
rest on tw o Bauhaus-style benches built in
1942 b y A le x R eed and M o lly G regory,
head o f the w ood w o rk in g shop. T h e p ew -
like seats w ere crafted for the contempla-
tive setting o f the Q uiet H ouse, a Quaker-
like stone stru ctu re that R eed built in
m em ory o f a deceased child. O ther fu rn i-
ture holdings include an innovative bent
plyw ood chair made at the college by archi-
tecture professor Law rence K ocher, who
designed the school’s m odernist Studies
B uilding and other structures.
Perhaps the most im portant holding
from the pottery workshop is a vase made
by Peter Voulkos as a 1953 summer instruc-
tor. T h is vessel “ represents a transition
period when Voulkos still made quasi-func-
tional objects before m oving toward ab-
stract sculptures,” Sebrell says. “ It was at
the college that he met the A bstract Ex-
pressionists. T h at totally changed the w ay
he began thinking about his w ork. Shortly
thereafter, he began thinking sculpturally.”
A lso noteworthy are a platter by the w riter
and potter M .C . Richards, w ho discovered
cl ay w hile teaching English at Black M oun-
tain, and a casserole by potter-in-residence
Karen K arnes.
A n n i A lb ers d irected the w eavin g
w orkshop, and the museum ow ns place
m ats, runners and a strikin g tablecloth
w oven by F red G oldsm ith under her tu te-
lage. Fiber artist L o re K adden Linden-
feld donated a 1940s double-w eave sample
w ith rectangular floats that echo Bauhaus
textiles. A large tapestry b y E velyn W il-
liams A nselivicius, part o f her Geodesic
series from the 1970s, presents an assem -
blage o f m ulti-colored triangles, squares
and circles suggesting a collapsed B uck-
m inster Fuller dome.
D evoted to exploring and preserving
the history o f Black M ountain C ollege and
matching its intellectual rigor, the museum
produces publications, organizes exhibi-
tions and develops public programs to raise
awareness—all w ith a sta ff o f one. A year-
long series, “ T h e Shape o f Imagination:
W om en o f Black M ountain C ollege,” is
currently honoring faculty and students in
three exhibitions.* T h e museum’s extensive
archives hold correspondence, class notes,
diplomas and original college publications,
including historically significant items like
the letters w ritten home by Alm a Stone
W illiam s, the first A frican-A m erican >
Top:
M .C . Richards
P la tte r
, 195 os, stone-
ware {h.
Vi
in, w. 13 Vi
in,d. 12^» in}.
Above: Portrait of the
writer and potter M.C.
Richards (later known
for the book
C e n te rin g)
ca. late 1940s, early
1950s, by Hazel Larsen
Archer, who photo-
graphed many Black
Mountain artists.
feb/niaro9 american craft o7f
